Economic growth evens-out happiness: evidence from six surveys

Andrew Clark, Sarah Flèche and Claudia Senik ()

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: In spite of the great U-turn that saw income inequality rise in Western countries in the 1980s, happiness inequality has fallen in countries that have experienced income growth (but not in those that did not). Modern growth has reduced the share of both the “very unhappy” and the “perfectly happy”. Lower happiness inequality is found both between and within countries, and between and within individuals. Our cross-country regression results argue that the extension of various public goods helps to explain this greater happiness homogeneity. This new stylised fact arguably comes as a bonus to the Easterlin paradox, offering a somewhat brighter perspective for developing countries.

Keywords: Happiness; inequality; economic growth; development; Easterlin paradox (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D31 D6 I31 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 38 pages
Date: 2014-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hap, nep-hpe and nep-ltv
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/60530/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Economic Growth Evens Out Happiness: Evidence from Six Surveys (2016)
Working Paper: Economic Growth Evens Out Happiness: Evidence from Six Surveys (2016)
Working Paper: Economic Growth Evens Out Happiness: Evidence from Six Surveys (2016)
Working Paper: Economic growth evens out happiness: evidence from six surveys (2015)
Working Paper: Economic Growth Evens-Out Happiness: Evidence from Six Surveys (2014)
Working Paper: Economic Growth Evens-out Happiness: Evidence from Six Surveys (2014)
Working Paper: Economic Growth Evens-Out Happiness: Evidence from Six Surveys (2014)
Working Paper: Economic Growth Evens-Out Happiness: Evidence from Six Surveys (2014)
Working Paper: Economic Growth Evens-Out Happiness: Evidence from Six Surveys (2014)
Working Paper: Economic Growth Evens-Out Happiness: Evidence from Six Surveys (2014)
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